Some embodiments described herein relate generally to methods and apparatus for assessing the quality of a data path between a source device and a destination device in an enterprise network that includes both layer-2 (L2) and layer-3 (L3) devices. More specifically, some embodiments described herein relate to methods and apparatus for detecting the data path taken by test data units while traversing between the source device and the destination device and determining the transit delays involved in each intermediate network node along the data path.
Typically, control units such as control packets and/or data units such as data packets sent from a source device to a destination device in an enterprise network can take multiple data paths. Each data path can involve multiple L2 intermediate devices and/or multiple L3 intermediate devices. Such intermediate devices can introduce delays caused by processing the control units and/or data units. Moreover, such delays are neither consistent nor predictable. Hence, such delays often lead to connectivity problems in an enterprise network and can reduce the efficiency of an enterprise network.
Known methods such as the L3 traceroute can be used for displaying the data path taken by control and/or data packets and measuring transit delays of packets associated with intermediate devices in the data path. L3 traceroute however, only displays the internet protocol (IP) address of each intermediate L3 device such as routers in the data path and a quality factor that is indicative of the transit delays associated with the packet in each intermediate L3 hop (i.e., no information on L2 devices can be provided). Other known methods such as a known L2 traceroute can return data path information if the source device and the destination device are in the same Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) such as, for example, the MAC address of the intermediate L2 devices and their associated port identifiers. This known L2 traceroute utility fails if the source device and the destination device are located in different VLANs (i.e., no information on intermediate L3 devices can be provided). Additionally, this L2 traceroute utility also does not provide any quality factor that can be indicative of any transit delays.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus for detecting the data path taken by control units and/or data units while traversing between a source device and a destination device in an enterprise network and determining the transit delays involved in each network node along the data path that can involve multiple intermediate L2 and/or L3 devices.